Chi-chi Nwanoku

Chi-chi Nwanoku studied at Kendrick School. The recorded working language is English. Employment is recorded with Classic FM, Royal Academy of Music and BBC Radio 3. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Order of the British Empire and honorary doctorate.

• Name — Chi-Chi Nwanoku • Birth Name — Chinyere Adah Nwanoku • Born — 1956 • Birthplace — Fulham, London, England • Occupation — Double bassist; founder and artistic director of Chineke! Orchestra • Website — https: www.chineke.org/our-founder

Nwanoku is of Nigerian and Irish descent and is the oldest of the five children of her parents, Dr Michael Nwanoku and his wife Margaret (née Hevey). Nwanoku's mother, Margaret, was disowned by her parents due to having an interracial relationship; however, Margaret's mother secretly travelled to London three months after the birth of Nwanoku. Nwanoku was born in Fulham, London, and before reaching school age she lived in Imo State, Nigeria, where her family went for two years. Nwanoku attended Kendrick Girls' Grammar School in Reading, Berkshire. At the age of seven she began her education as a classical musician, first piano, and at the age of 18 bass. Nwanoku subsequently studied at the Royal Academy of Music while undertaking training as a 100-metre sprinter but had to end her athletic career following a knee injury.

Nwanoku is the founder of the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe's first classical orchestra made up of a majority of black and ethnically diverse musicians, with whom she regularly performs. The orchestra, made up of 62 musicians representing 31 different nationalities, first performed in 2015 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and in addition to her work with the Chineke! Orchestra, Nwanoku has worked as principal double bass of the ensemble Endymion, the London Mozart Players, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the English Baroque Soloists, the London Classical Players and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique. Her academic appointments include Professor of Double Bass at the Royal Academy of Music and Visiting Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. Besides playing and teaching bass, she has been active as a broadcaster, as in BBC Radio 3 Requests and in BBC TV Proms and as a member of BBC's Classical Star jury. In 2015 Nwanoku presented the BBC Radio 4 programmes In Search of the Black Mozart, featuring the lives and careers of black classical composers and performers from the 18th century, including Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges; Ignatius Sancho; and George Bridgetower. She has also presented an episode of the Sky Arts TV series Passions, on the life and work of British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Other positions held by Nwanoku include being a former board member of the National Youth Orchestra, Tertis Foundation, London Music Fund, Royal Philharmonic Society (Council), and the Association of British Orchestras board. She is also a former Patron of Music Preserved, and is a current Patron of the Cherubim Trust. Nwanoku was a guest of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 11 February 2018. In 2019, Nwanoku opened the new site of Hackney New Primary School, a specialist music school for children. In October 2020, she presented a six-part radio show on Classic FM called Chi-chi's Classical Champions, a programme highlighting the music of contemporary and historical composers of Black, Asian and ethnically diverse heritage. A second series was broadcast in 2021. In September 2023, Nwanoku was the guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives; her choice was Jessye Norman. She featured in Stormzy's book Superheroes: Inspiring Stories of Secret Strength. Nwanoku lives in London and has two children.